This invention relates to a telephone adapted to be connected to a telephone line and which comprises:
a first handset including firstly a first casing and secondly a first earpiece and a first microphone that are so arranged in said first casing as to be acoustically linked with the outside of said first casing;
a second handset including firstly a second casing, and secondly a second earpiece and a second microphone that are so arranged in said second casing as to be acoustically linked with the outside of said second casing, said second handset further including a first antenna and first circuits for connecting said second earpiece and said second microphone to said first antenna;
a base including a third casing having a first cavity for receiving said first casing and a second cavity for receiving said second casing, said base further including a second antenna and second circuits for connecting said telephone line to said second antenna; and
means for galvanically connecting said first earpiece and said first microphone to said telephone line; said first and second antennas and said first and second circuits being so adapted to one another as to enable said second earpiece and said second microphone to be linked to said telephone line. circuits being so adapted to one another as to enable said second earpiece and said second microphone to be connected to said telephone line.
As above, and to avoid unnecessary repetitions, use will be made throughout the following description of the term "first handset" for the handset that is galvanically connected to the base of the telephone by means including in particular a flex having at least two conductors and which is comparable to the handset of a conventional telephone, and the term "second handset" for the handset that is connected to the base by a radio link provided in particular by transmitter and receiver circuits and by antennas included in said base and said second handset.
Telephones of the kind defined above enable a user to have conversations with a correspondent with either the first handset in the usual way, in which case the user must obviously remain close to the telephone's base, or the second handset, in which case the user may move about freely up to a certain distance from the base, such distance depending obviously on the power of the transmitters and on the sensitivity of the receivers that provide the radio link between the base and the second handset.
Telephones of this kind moreover enable two persons each using one of the handsets to have a telephone conversation with one another or to have, together, a telephone conversation with a third person.
Such telephones are for instance described in German Patent specification 3434686.
In the telephone described in this patent application, the top surface of the base is shaped to define two cavities that are separated from one another by a number-selecting keyboard and which are each meant to receive one of the two handsets. This telephone is therefore quite bulky.